


Titanic

by stellarparallax



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: If you're looking for love, Other, everyone other than yuri and otabek are just mentioned, really really dialogue heavy, they are just friends here, they don't play a major role, this is not it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 02:57:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,680
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10732725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellarparallax/pseuds/stellarparallax
Summary: “I’m not talking about the photo,” he turned his phone screen to face him and he started scrolling furiously through the comments, “You called one of the people who commented ‘salty’.”“And?”“Yura, that’s not very nice.”“Trust me, they like it. Phichit told me so.”





	Titanic

“Beka, I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”

 

“What is it, Yura?”

 

“Why don’t you post more photos of that beautiful face on Instagram? I’m sure your family would like to keep tabs on how you are in St. Petersburg.”

 

“You know I don’t like using social media. I just made accounts to satisfy my nagging coach. Besides, if my family wants to know anything about me, they could always call me.”

 

What Yuri actually wanted was for Otabek to update his social media accounts more often so that HE would be able to keep tabs on him. Even after months of being friends, he still felt a little awkward talking to him. It would be so much easier to find out dumb things like how Otabek’s day went if he gave that information freely to the public. Yuri didn’t want to look to needy. When the family angle didn’t work, he tried the fan one.

 

“Yeah, okay, but think of this: your fans don’t have your contact information.”

 

“Thank God.”

 

“No, what I mean is that they have no way of knowing your progress and how you’re doing and stuff. It would be good to update them.”

 

“They get updates when I compete.”

 

Was Otabek always this frustratingly stubborn? Was this why he managed to even make it to the Grand Prix Finals in spite of representing a country that had so little resources for professional skaters to take advantage of – pure adamancy? Yuri started grumbling about how Otabek was being unfair and selfish as he entered his room and slammed the door, leaving the Kazakh utterly dumbfounded.

 

Yuri unlocked his phone and started scrolling through his Twitter feed. Phichit had just made it past the first audition in a small skating theatre production in Thailand. JJ and Isabella were preparing for their wedding ceremony. Georgi had finally found a new girlfriend since Anya. Mila was on a date. Viktor and Yuuri were staying home for dinner. See, that was the type of _quality_ content he was referring to.

 

Suddenly, a new tweet came in. It was from Otabek.

 

_Thanks for always looking out for me, @yuri-plisetsky_

 

Yuri smirked. Perhaps Otabek wasn’t as stubborn as he thought.

 

* * *

 

“YURA, COME HERE.”

 

In mere seconds, Yuri’s room door flew open.

 

“You’ve finally succumbed to my charms, yes?”

 

“Don’t joke with me, Yura. What is the meaning of this?” he held his phone in front of him so that Yuri could see what he was referring to.

 

Yuri didn’t need to look at Otabek’s phone to know what he was referring to. He had posted a photograph of Otabek asleep on their couch with the caption “perf”. Their fans knew that they were roommates, but it seems that many of them were under the impression that they were more than friends. Yuri had always been amused by their imagination.

 

“I posted a photo of you. Big deal.”

 

“I’m not talking about the photo,” he turned his phone screen to face him and he started scrolling furiously through the comments, “You called one of the people who commented ‘salty’.”

 

“And?”

 

“Yura, that’s not very nice.”

 

“Trust me, they like it. Phichit told me so.”

 

“And since when did you start taking advice from Phichit?” he said with a raised eyebrow.

 

“… Since he started getting more followers than me,” Yuri mumbled, “Besides, Viktor and Yuuri do it too.”

 

That statement gave Otabek pause. He knew that Yuri always looked up to Viktor and Yuuri, even if he wasn’t willing to admit it.

 

“Yura,” Otabek said gently, “You don’t have to be like them. You’re not Viktor and Yuuri.”

 

“What? Of course I know that. That doesn’t make me want to participate in fanservice any less.”

 

Otabek sighed. Sometimes, he wondered how he managed to get along with the Russian boy when they were different in so many ways.

 

“Come on, Beka. If you do it with me, we can really get people talking.”

 

“…Fine.”

 

“You mean it?”

  
“Yes, but on one condition – nothing racy gets posted. My younger sister follows me on social media and I don’t want to have to deal with my parents yelling at me for acting inappropriately.”

 

“Deal.”

 

* * *

 

 

In retrospect, Yuri didn’t know how he didn’t see it coming. It was bound to happen. He saw it online all the time. Whenever a couple went public about their relationship, the started posting more and more about each other until there was a large enough wedge between them. The ‘relationship goals’ act was a tough one to keep up, especially since most relationships were boring. Somehow, Viktor and Yuuri managed to keep their public and private lives separate. Otabek was right, Yuri wasn’t them.

 

Yuri felt his eyes moisten whenever he saw the crack in the wall from the time he picked up a lamp and threw it at Otabek’s head in a fit of rage. He never did tell Otabek how thankful he was that he managed to dodge it. They weren’t even in a relationship. They just pretended to be in one. As it happens, that didn’t protect them from the pitfalls of having a public relationship, even an artificial one.

 

Otabek stopped posting on social media since he moved back to Almaty.

 

Yuri could recall their last fight verbatim.

 

_Otabek was pretending to sulk on the couch._

_“Beka, what’s wrong?”_

_“I’m a little offended that someone commented that the hand you were holding in this photo is mine.”_

_Yuri looked at the screen of Otabek’s phone. It was a photo that Yuri had posted earlier that day of him holding hands with his grandfather during a check-up at the hospital. He wasn’t getting any younger and his health was on a steep decline. He had captioned the photograph with “I will always support you”. For some reason, many of his fans had mistaken his grandfather’s hands to be Otabek’s. He thought it was funny because many people who met his grandfather had commented that he his hands looked younger than him._

_“And this offends you, why?”_

_“Well, they think my hands are like an old man’s.”_

_Otabek was grinning, but for some reason Yuri didn’t pay attention to that. All he thought was that Otabek was insulting his grandfather._

_“I will have you know that those hands raised me when younger ones were incapable of doing so.”_

_“Yura, it was just a joke.”_

_“A joke at the expense of the one person in my life that truly cares about me.”_

_“What is that supposed to mean?”_

_Yuri clapped is hand over his mouth when he realised what he had just said. His eyes widened as he waited for Otabek’s rage to surface. Otabek never took lightly to being told that he didn’t care about Yuri as much as everyone else did. He was told that online on an hourly basis ever since he and Yuri started posting fanservice._

_Instead, Otabek just sighed._

_“Yuri, you realise that we’ve been fighting over the stupidest things for the past few months? This all started two months into us posting more and more baiting social media updates.”_

_“Yeah…”_

_“Maybe, we need to be apart for a while. I’ve already talked to my coach and my parents.”_

_“Wait, what?”_

_“I’m moving back to Almaty by the end of the month.”_

_“Beka, no…”_

_“This is the only way I know how to save our friendship,” he had been avoiding Yuri’s gaze, but when he finally made eye contact he realised that Yuri was crying, “Yura, please don’t cry.”_

_“I should never have suggested that we…”_

_“It’s okay. Maybe this was bound to happen anyway.”_

_“I can’t believe you’re breaking up with me, Beka.”_

_“I’m not. This was just summer camp, and now it’s over.”_

 

* * *

  

Since Otabek left St. Petersburg to move back to Almaty, Yuri started to spend more and more time at the skating rink. He threw himself into his training. Salchow, toe loop, axel, lutz, flip. Salchow, toe loop, axel, lutz, flip. Wash, rinse repeat. He was so disciplined that he could probably recite his training regimen by the minute off the top of his head. Even Yakov was surprised by how dedicated he had become. He didn’t know that the only reason that Yuri requested private session after private session was so that he didn’t have to go back home to an empty apartment. As Yuri got busier and his grandfather’s condition got worse, he had to be transferred into hospice care.

 

He knew that Viktor and Yuuri were worried about him. They tried to get him to tag along on their outings, but Yuri always refused to go. He didn’t want to be reminded that he lost someone important to him because he tried to emulate their relationship.

 

Mila’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

 

“Yuri, dear, there’s a delivery for you.”

 

“What delivery? I didn’t order anything.”

 

“It came ordered for you. Now go get it,” she said as she pushed him towards the entrance of the building.

 

As Yuri approached the door, he started getting bombarded with negative thoughts. What if it was a letter from the nursing home to say that his grandfather’s condition got even worse? What if it was a fan trying to find an excuse to meet him? What if it was his mother coming to ask for more money to spend on luxury items?

 

What he didn’t think it could be was a large bear stuffed toy held up by a man about a head taller than him. The bear was held so high that it obscured the man’s face, but he knew who it was immediately.

 

“Otabek. What are you doing here?”

 

“I heard about your grandfather,” he said as he slowly lowered the bear so that Yuri could see his face, “I’m sorry. Please accept this.”

 

“Thanks.”

 

Yuri hugged the bear and immediately started crying.

 

“It smells like you.”

 

“I’m sorry that I got mad at you, Yuri. Will you go back to being my best friend and fake boyfriend?”

 

“Yes,” Yuri choked out, “But only to the first thing.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> It's called "Titanic" because the Otayuri ship sinks in this lol.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I would love to read any comments or feedback that you have for me! :)


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